What were those songs really about about....and do I really want to know?

[michael hagerty]

Re, The Beatles' Day Tripper and Ticket to Ride-- what were those songs about?

Ticket To Ride is pretty straightforward. His girl's going away...far away. She said that living with him was bringing her down and she could never be free when he was around. So, she's got a ticket to ride on a train or plane or bus.

Day Tripper, well, that's someone who doesn't stick around. She's in his life for a short time. He wants a real relationship, but she's a big teaser. She took him half the way there. She'll take the easy way out when she's ready to leave and he's only now realizing that ("it took me so long to find out").

 

[michael hagerty]

A few others along with what they're either about or supposedly about.,,,,

"Strangers in the Night", Frank Sinatra: Homosexuality. (My guess is that Frank was unaware)
"Some Velvet Morning", Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood: Incest (and possibly also drugs).
"Ticket to Ride", Beatles: I believe John Lennon said it was about a prostitute.
"Drive My Car", Beatles: In this case, I believe Paul said it was actually about drugs.
"Little Green Bag", George Baker Selection: Well....DUH!

i had a terrible drug experience set off by vanilla fudge's version of 'some velvet morning" a LONG time ago.

ever heard the theory that dusty springfield's ' i only want to be with you' was about lesbianism ?

Given that it was written by two guys and covered by the Bay City Rollers, I'd be very surprised. That rumor probably got started when it became known that Dusty Springfield (who had the first hit with it) was herself gay.

Ticket To Ride and Drive My Car ? C'mon. I explain Ticket To Ride in the post above. Drive My Car is a girl with big dreams trying to impress a guy and vice-versa.

Some Velvet Morning...drugs or alcohol (that's the "when I'm straight") part....but I think Phaedra is the one true love who cut out his heart and fed it to the cat. He still can't talk about it. Some morning, though, when he's straight...not drunk or drugged or whatever he's using to numb himself.

And finally, Strangers In The Night. I suppose any love song that doesn't specifically mention the opposite gender, getting married (back then), or having children could be interpreted as a "gay" love song, but that doesn't mean you'd be right.

And after 42 years, I have no f$&@ing clue what Little Green Bag is about.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

If you ask me, second-guessing the meaning of Sinatra's Strangers is a little suspect. Hindsight is 20/20, but can still err. Frankie might have round-housed any skeptic foolish enough to broach such speculation, especially if that critic were Kitty Kelly ;D.

And, about Lee & Nancy's Some Velvet Morning, I just listened yet again. Obviously offers driving sexual overtones, but incest? How? Which verses?

 

[unitron]

...
It's the reverse of the strategy London Records used four years earlier. WABC was refusing to add the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women". PD Rick Sklar cited the line "laid a divorcee in New York City". The head of London Records got the record on WABC by giving Sklar his word that Mick was singing "PLAYED a divorcee in New York City."

And now you know what a promo man's word was worth back in the day.

And I always heard THAT line as "I later did the same in New York City"!
[/quote]

So did I and it never crossed my mind in all these years that it could have been anything else.

And it works in context as well if not better than either line about a divorcee, i.e., he met a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis, and then later met another one in NYC (but at least he didn't get his picante sauce made there).

 

[cyberdad]

And, about Lee & Nancy's Some Velvet Morning, I just listened yet again. Obviously offers driving sexual overtones, but incest? How? Which verses?

I'm a little fuzzy when it comes to remembering the classical lit course that I took in college. But IIRC "Phaedra" is a character in a Greek tragedy about (or at least containing) incest. The song came out at about the same time I was taking the course.

 

[stevations]

Is Jackie Blue by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils about prostitution? Although I don't remember hearing about money in the lyrics so maybe Jackie Blue was similar to Mary Hill in Cherry Hill Park by Billy Joe Royal but money is mentioned in that song. In the newspaper I heard that a prostitute only accepted toasters with receipts for her services so she could not be called a prostitute because no money was exchanged. She would then go to the store and return the toasters for cash.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

... I heard that a prostitute only accepted toasters with receipts for her services so she could not be called a prostitute because no money was exchanged. She would then go to the store and return the toasters for cash.

One slice or two?

 

[unitron]

Re, The Beatles' Day Tripper and Ticket to Ride-- what were those songs about?

Ticket To Ride is pretty straightforward. His girl's going away...far away. She said that living with him was bringing her down and she could never be free when he was around. So, she's got a ticket to ride on a train or plane or bus.

Day Tripper, well, that's someone who doesn't stick around. She's in his life for a short time. He wants a real relationship, but she's a big teaser. She took him half the way there. She'll take the easy way out when she's ready to leave and he's only now realizing that ("it took me so long to find out").

Years later I found out that a day tripper was someone who showed up at a tourist destination for a day, usually as part of a charter outing, a day trip, so the girl in the song was "just passsing through" and had never intended to hang around.

Apparently it was a UK phrase more than an American one, like "punter".

 

[ixnay]

Someone mentioned that Bread's "Everything I Own" was about David Gates's father. Did Gates make that known at the time, or did he wait 'til years afterward (in the manner of Neil Diamond waiting 40 years to say "Sweet Caroline" was an ode to a Kennedy)? Did Kasem tell AT40 listeners the story about EIO?

ixnay

 

[stevations]

Ticket to Ride started Karen Carpenter on her career. What was America's...... Horse with No Name about? I never heard the Sweet Caroline story before.

 

[ixnay]

I never heard the Sweet Caroline story before.

I learned this through http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928390/posts.

SC was banned at Penn State sports events because of the Sandusky mess. Use the search engine at freerepublic.com for details.

ixnay

 

[stevations]

So is Cracklin' Rosie about Rose Kennedy?

 

[ixnay]

So is Cracklin' Rosie about Rose Kennedy?

No, accordingly to a pb bio entitled Neil Diamond, Solitary Star(?) (I forget the author's name); it came out around 1986 and I became aware of it when I came across my library's copy in the early '90s. Neil was dining with some friends, I read therein, and sipping rose', and he commented on how "crackling" the rose''s taste was.

ixnay

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

What was America's...... Horse with No Name about?

The rumor during my days in radio was HEROIN. "Horse" is one of a number of street names for this drug. Listen carefully-- as the song starts, you can almost track the user's rise to Heroin's speedy euphoria. Then, toward the end, the singer appears to be "coming down" from his "high". Of course, I could be wrong.

 

[Robert Bass]

What was America's...... Horse with No Name about?

The rumor during my days in radio was HEROIN. "Horse" is one of a number of street names for this drug. Listen carefully-- as the song starts, you can almost track the user's rise to Heroin's speedy euphoria. Then, toward the end, the singer appears to be "coming down" from his "high". Of course, I could be wrong.

You are wrong. The song's composer, D. Bunnell, has explained exactly what the song was about. It was about all the things he saw while traveling the U.S. as a young man.

R

 

[michael hagerty]

What was America's...... Horse with No Name about?

The rumor during my days in radio was HEROIN. "Horse" is one of a number of street names for this drug. Listen carefully-- as the song starts, you can almost track the user's rise to Heroin's speedy euphoria. Then, toward the end, the singer appears to be "coming down" from his "high". Of course, I could be wrong.

You are wrong. The song's composer, D. Bunnell, has explained exactly what the song was about. It was about all the things he saw while traveling the U.S. as a young man.

R

That's the thing that always bugged me about the "secret meaning" stories. They only work if you're willing to throw out 90 percent (or in this case, all but one word) of the song.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

What was America's...... Horse with No Name about?

The rumor during my days in radio was HEROIN. "Horse" is one of a number of street names for this drug. Listen carefully-- as the song starts, you can almost track the user's rise to Heroin's speedy euphoria. Then, toward the end, the singer appears to be "coming down" from his "high". Of course, I could be wrong.

You are wrong. The song's composer, D. Bunnell, has explained exactly what the song was about. It was about all the things he saw while traveling the U.S. as a young man.
R

:'(

 

[Info-warrior]

Bryan Adams says his song "Summer of 69" isn't about a trip down memory lane, but about sex. Maybe something to that as I don't think he would be old enought to be in his mid teens in 1969, which is often the age I believe the person in the song is.

However, I can't ignore the content and accept that it's 100% about sex, most of the lines about guitars and bands don't lend themselves to metaphore too well. Sex is indeed part of the song.

But, I guess this is where the arguments regarding music come from as I believe no matter what the artist says, interpretation will always belong to the listener.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Bryan Adams says his song "Summer of 69" isn't about a trip down memory lane, but about sex. Maybe something to that as I don't think he would be old enought to be in his mid teens in 1969, which is often the age I believe the person in the song is.

... I can't ignore the content and accept that it's 100% about sex, most of the lines about guitars and bands don't lend themselves to metaphore too well...

Maybe not so much Summer of 69, but guitars can indeed be living sexual metaphors. Watch a few Jimi Hendrix videos.

 

[Info-warrior]

Bryan Adams says his song "Summer of 69" isn't about a trip down memory lane, but about sex. Maybe something to that as I don't think he would be old enought to be in his mid teens in 1969, which is often the age I believe the person in the song is.

... I can't ignore the content and accept that it's 100% about sex, most of the lines about guitars and bands don't lend themselves to metaphore too well...

Maybe not so much Summer of 69, but guitars can indeed be living sexual metaphors. Watch a few Jimi Hendrix videos.

I often wondered what Hendrix's sound would have evoulved to had he lived into the 1980s? I could see him intergrating elements of New Wave and maybe even early hip hop into his music. A shame none of us ever got to find out.